Kuwait - In response to the Central Bank of Kuwait's (CBK) request for local banks and investment companies to find a mechanism for handling the complaints of their clients, representatives
of the institutions gathered in a symposium Thursday in a symposium to probe the issue.

The symposium, titled "the planned mechanism for dealing with complaints of clients," aims to find a suitable way for settling the the possible legitimate grievance of clients against companies and banks without recourse to the CBK, said Dr. Jamal Abdulrahim, an expert in financial and commercial crimes.

"The CBK is the bank of the state, not of individuals; it operates according to the monetary law and the legal frameworks of the banking profession," Abdulrahim said in his address to the opening session of the gathering.

"Clients need to have a clear insight into the mandates of the CBK and the judiciary system," he said, highlighting the importance of launching the planned mechanism.

"Such a body, when launched, will alleviate pressure on the judiciary system and settle the disputes between clients and companies in a legal way. It will also save the clients the trouble of suing the companies and paying for that," Abdulrahim argued.

Representatives of the companies raised some suggestions for meeting the CBK request.

They proposed launching compliant handling units which could be attached to the customer service divisions already existent in some companies.

Most of the complaints stemmed from the consumer loans, the investment funds and long-term purchases, Chairman of the Union of Investment Companies (UIC) Dr. Ramadan El-Sharrah said.

"The UIC received a letter from the CBK on August 26, requesting the initiation of a dispute-settlement mechanism. Consequently, we addressed 100 companies and urged them to work out suggestions in this regard.

"Only four companies responded. So, we decided to organize the current symposium in order to develop a reply to the CBK," El-Sharrah said, noting that the UIC asked CBK's governor for give the companies a moratorium until September 36 to respond to the request. (KUNA)Global Arab Network